A Duty to Fight
by Heavenly Pearl
Summary: When the final battle comes, Remus wants Tonks to stay at her mother's house with Teddy, but Tonks can't help but feel she has a duty to join the rest of the Order in fighting Voldemort and the Death Eaters. Set during Deathly Hallows.


A Duty to Fight

The news they had been waiting for all year had finally come, by way of Patronus. The message was simple: Come to Hogwarts; the last battle has begun.

Remus, upon hearing the news, immediately leapt up from his chair and handed Teddy to Tonks. The three of them had been spending some quality family time together, though neither he or Tonks had been able to relax. "So the time has come, has it?" he murmured to nobody in particular, no doubt thinking of all the dear friends he had lost -- Dumbledore, Sirius, James, and Lily -- and the revenge he would finally be able to take out on the people who had killed them. His eyes were almost feral, although there was no full moon out that night. "After so many years…"

Tonks nodded, knowing exactly how he felt. Not only had her cousin Sirius and her mentor Mad-Eye Moody been killed in the line of duty, her father, a Muggle-born wizard, had been recently murdered while on the run from the Death Eater-controlled Ministry, so she had her own scores to settle. Even if she had lost her job as Auror due to marrying a werewolf, she was still a member of the Order of the Phoenix, sworn to protect the magical world from He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. She had dedicated her life to fighting Dark Wizards, and there were none so dark as the Death Eaters and their leader.

"I'll tell Mum we're leaving," she said, starting to head downstairs when Remus reached for her arm and stopped her.

"No, Dora," he said, shaking his head. "You should stay here with Teddy and Andromeda; it's safer."

If the situation wasn't so serious, Tonks might have laughed. She was hardly the type to sit at home when there was evil to be fought. It went against every instinct she had honed as an Auror. "Don't be ridiculous, Remus. I'm a member of the Order; it is my duty to fight in the upcoming battle. Besides, Teddy will be perfectly safe here with my mother."

"But what about you?"

"What about me?"

Remus' eyes softened, and he reached up to caress her cheek. "I love you," he said in a soft voice. "You do know that, don't you? I probably should have said it more when I had the chance, but despite my earlier reservations, I _am _glad I married you. You gave me your love, and you gave me our son, and that's why I can't bear the thought of either of you in danger."

"But Remus --"

He interrupted her protest with a kiss. "Don't worry about me," he said when they finally broke apart. Taking Teddy from her arms, he kissed the top of their son's turquoise-colored head. "When this is all over, I'll come back to you and Teddy, and maybe we'll work on a sister for this little guy."

"You want to have another child?" she asked, surprised.

He smiled. "Now that we know that my lycanthropyisn't passed on genetically, we may just give Arthur and Molly a run for their money."

Rolling her eyes, Tonks took a yawning Teddy back in her arms. "I don't know about that, but a daughter would be nice," she admitted, briefly returning his smile. "Just…be careful out there, okay? If you leave me a widow, I'll never forgive you. I'm too young for that."

"I will," he promised before Apparating to Hogsmeade to meet with the rest of the Order.

Once Remus was gone, Tonks sighed and went to the nursery to put Teddy down for the night, her heart heavy as she thought of the brave wizards and witches, including her husband, who were risking their lives so that children like Teddy would never have to know the horror of war.

She should be there, too, instead of being forced to uselessly twiddle her thumbs like some kind of helpless damsel in distress…

She was an Auror, dammit!

While she understood Remus' reasons for her to stay at her mother's house with Teddy, Tonks couldn't help but feel like he was treating her like a child. Yes, she was quite a few years younger than him, but she had plenty of experience fighting Dark wizards, and the Order would need all the help it could get in order to defeat the Death Eaters and their leader. Just because she was a woman and a young mother didn't mean she was content to stay at home while others risked their lives to save the magical world.

"Nymphadora, did I just hear somebody Apparating out of the house?" her mother asked, startling Tonks from her thoughts.

Tonks turned her head to see her mother standing in the doorway to the nursery. "Yes, that was Remus," she replied. "We received a message from the Order. The final battle has begun at Hogwarts."

"I see." Her mother had never been a fan of Remus', hating how much her daughter had to give up because she had married a werewolf, so Tonks was surprised when her mother came up beside her and placed a hand on her shoulder. "You're worried about him."

"I'm worried about everybody," she replied, adding an "especially Remus" silently in her mind.

"Then why are you still here? You're a member of the Order, too, aren't you?"

"Remus wants me to stay here with you and Teddy," Tonks admitted, unable to keep a trace of bitterness out of her voice. "I can't stand this! I know he just wants to make sure we're safe, but --"

"-- but you were never one to sit on the sidelines," her mother said, completing her sentence. "Even as a little girl, you were like that. You always had to be where the action was, always had to stick up for those in trouble."

"I must have caused you and Dada lot of worry."

"None more than when you told us you intended to pursue your Auror studies."

"You were especially against it," Tonks remembered, lovingly pulling a blanket up to Teddy's shoulders. The baby was already fast asleep, blissfully unaware of the battle raging at Hogwarts that would determine the fate of the magical world. She envied him. "You didn't like the idea of me possibly having to arrest one of your family members, even if the Blacks had disowned you over your marriage to a Muggle-born."

"I disagreed with their ideas of pureblood supremacy, but that didn't mean I still didn't love my sisters, despite the horrible things they had done."

"Even Bellatrix, who killed your favorite cousin Sirius?"

Instead of answering, her mother reached down in the crib for Teddy's favorite stuffed bear, placing it next to the sleeping infant. She smiled at her grandson, the child named in honor of her late husband, then turned to face her daughter.

"You should go, Nymphadora," her mother said. "Go to Hogwarts and protect the people you love, including Remus. It's the big fight; you can't just abandon everything you've worked for all these years."

"But Teddy --" Despite her desire to fight, the maternal side of Tonks did not exactly relish the idea of leaving her precious baby behind, even if she knew he would be perfectly fine in his grandmother's care.

"Teddy will be safe with me. I'll protect him with my life, if need be, although I doubt that will be necessary. With people like you and Remus fighting the good fight, I'm certain He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named will finally be defeated for good."

"Mum…"

Admittedly, she and her mother had never had the best mother-daughter relationship over the years. The two of them were as different as two people could be, and, to somebody like her elegant mother, Tonks always suspected she had been a bit of a disappointment as a daughter. Yet, at that moment, she realized her mother was actually proud of her, and her eyes misted up with tears as she gave her mother a hug.

"Thank you," she whispered.

"Go give those Death Eaters hell, Tonks," her mother said, calling Tonks by her preferred name for the first time. "Fight in memory of your father and Sirius, and help make this world a better place for your son to grow up in."

Tonks grinned. "I will."

DISCLAIMER: _Harry Potter_ is the property of J.K. Rowling.

AUTHOR'S NOTES: Written for the hp_monthly community at Livejournal, Theme - Abandon.


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